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What constitutes a download?

mariat
mariat Posts: 163 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
in Broadband & internet access
My ISP was AOL for years, but due to connection problems I switched to BT about 18 months ago. The plan I now have has a 10gb download limit, which at the time I thought would be plenty. But every month I am getting charges £1 per gb over useage - This month BT tell me I have used 18gb. I don't understans it as I rarely download anything, and I don't use facebook or anything like that. The only thing I can think of is my free AVG anti virus updates automatically. Can anyone please shed some light on why my useage is so high?
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Comments

  • jb66
    jb66 Posts: 1,705 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Change your router password, someone may be using your connection. A download is any data your computer recieves from your ISP. BBC Iplayer etc is download heavy. Your antivirus will be next to nothing.

    18gb is 4 full dvds worth of downloads so it is alot, somethings not adding up.
  • madnlooney
    madnlooney Posts: 457 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    as suggested change your password for your router and also check your protection. you want to be using WPA. if you dont use the internet much and using 18gb it could be someone else using your connection. I think the older homehubs default setup were to use WEP encryption
  • mariat
    mariat Posts: 163 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks for that. I will change the router password, etc. But can you tell me, would it be due to my son playing X Box Live, or watching clips on real player? He reckons not, but I'm not so sure!
  • penrhyn
    penrhyn Posts: 15,215 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    You have probably hit on your problem.
    Depends on how many Video clips he is watching. BBC iPlayer can contribute greatly to your download allowance as well.
    Dunno how much bandwidth X Box live would take.
    That gum you like is coming back in style.
  • Phantom_Flan_Flinger
    Phantom_Flan_Flinger Posts: 2,794 Forumite
    Xbox live can eat up your bandwith, especially if he's on it a lot.

    Have you asked if he downloads any demos, as they're regularly over 1GB in size.
    Dave. :wave:
  • DatabaseError
    DatabaseError Posts: 4,161 Forumite
    any internet activity is considered a 'download', loading simple pages use very little of your allowance, watching video uses a lot
    Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.
  • Pokerlad
    Pokerlad Posts: 407 Forumite
    As has been said any internet data received is described as a 'download'. Any data you receive over the connection will contribute to your download limit, even simply looking at a webpage. So yes, your sons XBox live will be contributing to your download data and if playing games online will be data hungry and probably whats pushing you over your limit.

    Depending how much extra its costing you, you may want to change to an unlimited service if your usage will be staying the same.
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,129 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    mariat wrote: »
    My ISP was AOL for years, but due to connection problems I switched to BT about 18 months ago. The plan I now have has a 10gb download limit, which at the time I thought would be plenty. But every month I am getting charges £1 per gb over useage - This month BT tell me I have used 18gb. I don't understans it as I rarely download anything, and I don't use facebook or anything like that. The only thing I can think of is my free AVG anti virus updates automatically. Can anyone please shed some light on why my useage is so high?

    How often do we hear this? It's not a download allowance, it's a data usage allowance. Every time you view a web page, you are using data, and you download that page to your web browser. Your son using XBox or viewing videos is undoubtedly the main cause of going over your allowance. it doesn't matter if it's downloaded or streamed, it's still moving data around, and that is what is measured.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • Fire_Fox
    Fire_Fox Posts: 26,026 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Part of the problem is lying sales staff - BT told me only last week that watching iPlayer online isn't downloading!!
    Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
  • mariat
    mariat Posts: 163 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    Fire_Fox wrote: »
    Part of the problem is lying sales staff - BT told me only last week that watching iPlayer online isn't downloading!!

    Exactly!

    So it looks like I'll have to upgrade to an unlimited plan, which I begrudge doing as BT is expensive enough as it is. But the bad reviews I have read about cheaper IPS's has put me off moving again. Better the devil you know, I suppose. I think I'll ask my son to stump up the extra fiver! Thanks to everyone who replied :T
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